Worrying won’t work for White
GAVIN WHITE is a third year PE & Maths student in the University of Limerick. He travels to Killarney on Wednesdays and Fridays for club training but swaps the driving with team mate Míchael Burns who is a student in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.
HOW excited are you to play in your second All-Ireland final in two years?
“Oh definitely. I’m not really a nervous person. I’ve the mentality that if you have the work done there’s nothing to be nervous about and I feel we have the work done. When you come into the stadium on Patrick’s Day a few hours before the game there could be nerves, but that’s good for you as well. Really you play the game for days like this!
“The introduction of the junior and intermediate All-Irelands means that everyone has those goals now and can achieve it but I’m lucky alright. Most people don’t have one All-Ireland club medal or even played in a final, so I feel very privileged to be in this position.”
YOU were only 20 winning an All-Ireland club final. When did you first play senior for the club and the county?
“I made my debut against (Austin) Stacks in a county quarter-final. It was the year I was repeating my Leaving Cert and I was still a minor. I made my debut against Clare in the Championship last year, but I was in with the panel for three years and it’s very hard to get on in any county team.
“The first two years were really about getting used to the whole set-up and getting bigger and stronger so that you’re ready for that standard and, thankfully, last year I was given my chance.”
IT’S hard to believe that Dr Croke’s victory in 2017 was only their second. What do you remember of their close shaves in previous years as a youngster?
“I remember when they played Crossmaglen in the final in 2007 up in Croke Park and then the replay in Portlaoise. That’s my biggest memory. I was only around 11 or 12 and we went up on the train to Dublin, so it was a massive day out. Then when Crokes were going to All-Ireland semi-finals I was going to all them.
“We lost three in-a-row (201214) and thankfully finally got over that in 2017. The one that sticks in my mind, for a bad reason, was when Gooch did his cruciate in O’Moore Park. I was only around 17 and it was awful watching it.”
WHY do you think your team finally made the breakthrough to win the 2017 final against Slaughtneil?
“There was a lot of youth in that team and our bench was very strong. Mícheal Burns, Tony Brosnan and Jordan Kiely would probably be starting for most clubs in the country. They were on the bench then but pushing for places in training and that pushes up the standard for everyone.
Funny enough we never won a county minor. We won a lot of East Kerry titles, but Dingle were very strong at my age in the county. We lost a minor final to them in 2014 and it was the same in schools. A lot of us played for The Sem (St Brendan’s Killarney) and it was always The Sem versus Dingle and they won two Hogan Cups and a lot of Corn Ui Mhuiri. Underage they were beating us to everything at county level.”
HOW was the All-Ireland semi-final when you were in an unusual position because every neutral in the country was probably rooting for Mullinalaghta?
“We just had to block it out as much as we could. We knew that naturally enough people always want underdogs to win but we just kept that out. They gave us a massive test and it felt like the whole of Longford was up there so the crowd gave them a big boost.
“Going into that semi-final we really didn’t know what kind of form we had because we’d had a long break since the Munster final and then we went down to 14 very early. But luckily, we’d a strong enough panel to get high quality train- ing. I suppose any club that reaches the last eight now probably has the same depthwise.”
WHAT’S been the toughest game of the season?
“They’ve all been tough for their own reasons. Obviously the Mullinalaghta game beause we went down to 14 men and it looked like it was going against us for long periods, but we were able to pull it out. The games in Munster were tough and the same with the county championship.
“People mightn’t realise but we kinda came through the back door in Kerry. We lost to O’Rahillys in the second round and then met them again in the semi-final! That was up there with our toughest games. Themselves and Dingle in the final were two very tough games for us.”
WHAT do you remember from the 2017 final?
“Mostly the sense of relief and satisfaction. I was down over by the Hogan Stand on the ‘45 and I just dropped to my knees at the final whistle. The last 10 minutes of that game was the longest 10 minutes any Crokes supporter has ever had I’d say. We were so close and just so desperate to get over the line.”
Given that you and Corofin are the last two All-Ireland champions, and that you beat them in the 2017 semi-finals, there’s massive hype and expectation about this re-match. How do you deal with that expectation?
“We just think about us, we can’t control anyone else. Corofin are going to bring what Corofin always bring. We just have to concentrate on ourselves and can’t worry about what it’s going to be like as a spectacle. Just bring what we can bring.”